More lofts and a hotel for downtown; Norris is in; an odd e-mail
The most interesting item is at the end of this column.
But first....
Construction should start in 30 to 60 days on the $20 million, 111-unit Metro Lofts on Second Avenue downtown, and they should be ready for folks to move in by December. Renovation is already under way to turn the nearby, handsome old Rumely Building across from the Science Center on Fourth Street into 66 rental units. And there’s a strong likelihood that a 525-room hotel will go up south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway this year.
That’s the update from Jackie Nickolaus, the former Des Moines economic-development coordinator who now is the Des Moines-based vice president of Minneapolis’ Sherman Associates, a company she joined in 2005. Skinny checked in with her last week, and she was nothing but optimistic about downtown housing. She said the Vine Street Lofts, which are across the street from the Metro Lofts site and which Sherman developed a half-dozen years ago, have had 100 percent occupancy since June of 2005, and she expects quick rentals on the Rumely and Metro Lofts buildings as well. Because they are subsidized by the city or the state or the feds — with grants, tax deals and the like — almost all are what developers call “affordable” housing, meaning those units are reserved for people who earn less than the median income for folks in the metro area. (That median income for a family of one is $50,000, or $24.13 an hour; for a couple, it’s $57,360. The percentage cut-off for people eligible for affordable housing varies by project, but it’s often around 60 percent — which would mean a single person could earn up to $30,000 a year, a couple up to $34,416 and still be an eligible renter.) The Rumely Building is being renovated by Frana Cos., of suburban Minneapolis, and the same company will do the Metro Lofts.
Nickolaus also told Skinny that Sherman is “actively working with a hotel developer” for development of a site between Southwest 9th and Southwest 11th and Tuttle and Murphy streets. She says the hotel “will happen in 2010,” though she didn’t know — or wouldn’t say — what brand hotel the developer is pursuing. She also said the company is continuing to develop plans for the massive Gray’s Lake project, which so far exists only on drawing boards. It plans to sell off some commercial parcels to developers but might itself be the developer of housing in the area. Will that be the end for Sherman in downtown Des Moines? Not at all, she says. “There will be something in 2011.”
Meantime, Nelson Development is continuing work on the 88-year-old Hawkeye Transfer building just south of Martin Luther King on southwest Fifth Street. That building is being turned into 70 market-rate apartments at a cost of nearly $12 million. ...
A guy who still answers his phone — they are few and far between today — tells Skinny that he was annoyed and confused by a robo-call he received on Dec. 18 from the Branstad campaign, pointing out problems with Iowa’s economy and the need for more local jobs. First off, this guy’s been a registered Democrat for 39 years, making him wonder why he got the call. Second, the number the call came from was (202) 870-5892, which is registered to a robo-call company in the Washington, D.C., area that, according to a quick Google search, has been linked to many push-poll political calls. Third, he wonders that if Iowa needs more jobs, why do politicians like Branstad use out-of-state robo-call companies? “There certainly have to be companies in Iowa that do that,” he said, also noting that despite being a Democrat, he voted for Branstad each time he previously ran. “Not this time,” he says. “Robo-calls just piss me off, especially knowing that the politicians who don’t identify themselves in these calls are many of the same ones who wrote the Do Not Call legislation to begin with.” …
John Norris was nominated for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by President Obama on June 12. He finally was confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 24, which the Register duly reported on Jan. 10. Missing from the Register story: Why did it take more than six months for Norris to get confirmed? Answer: A Senator — Skinny is told it was Maine’s Olivia Snowe — put a “hold” on the nomination, keeping it from a vote by the Senate, because of some problem she had with FERC. But the hold was removed, and Norris was confirmed the day before Christmas. Norris, an aide to Tom Vilsack when he was governor, had been biding his time in Washington as chief of staff to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, a job he held much longer than either he or Vilsack planned on. Waiting in the wings for several months has been Karen Ross, whom Vilsack quickly named chief of staff a few days ago. Ross was raised on a farm in Nebraska but ended up in tonier regions as president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. ...
Look for air fares out of Des Moines to drop starting next month. On Feb. 11, Sky West Airways begins three-times-a-day flights to Milwaukee, where it will link up with discount carrier AirTran. AirTran flies to 18 major cities from Milwaukee, and already has posted discounted fares out of Des Moines. The roundtrip to New York, for example, is about 20 percent less than the current fare charged by Delta, American and United out of Des Moines, though Midwest Airlines, which also flies to Milwaukee, has matched the lower fare. ...
Now, for the interesting item: “I just received a call from a friend of mine that claims that the White House is going to offer Culver a job to get him not to run. I guess Rahm [Emanuel, of the White House staff] thinks Patty has a better chance,” says an e-mail from a Democrat on Iowa’s Capitol Hill. And this guy — he’s pretty well-connected — asks: “Have you heard anything about this?”
No. CV
